NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF JAMAICA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS TO DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF UNOG

Wayne McCook, the new Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations Office at Geneva, today presented his credentials to Sergei Ordzhonikidze, the Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva.

Mr. McCook is a career diplomat who has served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in various capacities. Prior to his appointment to Geneva, Mr. McCook served as Head of the Policy Planning and Implementation Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade from February 2010 to January 2011, and he also served as the Undersecretary for Foreign Trade in the Ministry from January 2009 to January 2010. From 2005 to 2008 he was Ambassador of Jamaica to the People’s Republic of China with concurrent accreditation to Bangladesh, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Lao People’s Republic, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam. He also served as the Senior Director of the Foreign Trade Department in the Ministry from 2002 to 2005, and from 2001 to 2002 he was the Director of the Caribbean and Americas Department in the Ministry.

From 1998 to 2001, Mr. McCook served as the Deputy Head of Mission at the embassy of Jamaica to the United States in Washington, D.C. and prior to that from 1996 to 1998 he was the Deputy Permanent Representative of Jamaica to the United Nations in New York. In 1995 and 1996 Mr. McCook was the acting Executive Director of the Broadcasting Commission, on secondment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, with a special assignment to create a framework for the establishment of a national subscriber television system. In 1994 and 1995 he served as the Director of the Information Department for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and from 1985 to 1993 he served as Information Attaché at the embassy of Jamaica in Washington, D.C. and then for the Jamaican High Commission in Ottawa. Mr. McCook began his career with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade as an Administrative Officer in 1984.

Mr. McCook has presented several papers on doing business in China as well as on the political and social situation in the Caribbean. He is a member of the bar in his native Jamaica as well as the state of Pennsylvania in the United States.

The new Permanent Representative of Jamaica holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University (2001), a certificate in legal education from the Norman Manley Law School (1995), a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center (1993), and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of the West Indies (1983). Mr. McCook was born on 9 March 1961 in Westmoreland, Jamaica. He is married with one child.


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CR11/002E